How Do You Deal with Residency / Taxes / Mail ?

[off-the-grid]

Originally Posted by donradcliffe

Its all part of the fun and adventure of leaving your cubicle.

Tough choice! You mean I may have to go back to a cubicle to renew my license? Good thing I don't have a car anymore.

[capt_douglas]

I use a mail service. They collect my mail and will hold it until I want it shipped. It's not cheap and they don't cull the junk, but it is a legal address. Sometimes I'll have the mail service send the collected stuff to my family who get to cull the garbage and either scan an email or forward to me.

As I get ready for my next go-round, one of the things I'm doing is getting rid of subscriptions I no longer want, converting subscriptions over to electronic versions, having my bank statements emailed to me, and in general deleting the stuff I consider more of a nuisance than a need.

[off-the-grid]

Same here. Already canceled all subscriptions and gone all digital with anything that I can.

[gettinthere]

part of the equation for us will be health insurance. We will be under 60 years old, so no medicare. We will be in the USA more than 6 months of the year, so the offshore insurers are out. I'm trying to find a resource that would tell us what state has the lowest health insurance premiums. Won't be my only determinant, but it will play a part.
From the limited info I have found so far, it looks like Fla is a bit higher than most states for decent health insur prices.

Anyone have a source for relative pricing on health insurance for individuals by state?

[grant.temeraire]

How safe is it to have St. Brendan's Isle scan your personal mail that might have sensitive information? Should an SBI customer worry about this?

[Hudson Force]

Originally Posted by grant.temeraire

How safe is it to have St. Brendan's Isle scan your personal mail that might have sensitive information? Should an SBI customer worry about this?

The scanning is an option. I don't have my mail scanned,- not because of sensitive material, but just due to the small volume of mail that I accumulate and have sent to me once a month.

[jcapo]

Originally Posted by grant.temeraire

How safe is it to have St. Brendan's Isle scan your personal mail that might have sensitive information? Should an SBI customer worry about this?

They only open and scan what you tell them to open and scan.

Got mail from the IRS while in the Bahamas last year. The ability to have that mail opened and scanned was great. Yeah it could have been forwarded to someplace in the Bahamas but dealing with it in a web browser was so much easier.

John

[rebel heart]

SBI with mail scanning for us. Works great, no problems. Updating all your addresses takes more time. After this voting cycle we're officially switching our state to Florida, so we're bringing our liberal blue blood to the purple swing state of Florida!

You often don't need the paper in your mail, you just need the info and a phone number to call.

[Kettlewell]

You do need an address somewhere that you call "home" for purposes of driver's licenses, tax bills, etc., but it is very possible these days to get your paper mail load down to a very small amount. The last time I was out I started with SBI and then eventually cancelled because I found that the few pieces of mail I needed to get were so infrequent that it wasn't a problem for my father to forward them on or just to read them to me over the phone. Keep in mind that once outside of the USA it is often very expensive and time consuming to get mail. I had one FedEx packet sent to Colombia when I was there and it was something like $60 to get it. Lots of other folks found out that even FedEx packages disappeared, and there was no mail. You need to arrange things so that you don't depend on getting mail.

[Hudson Force]

Originally Posted by Kettlewell

You do need an address somewhere that you call "home" for purposes of driver's licenses, tax bills, etc., but it is very possible these days to get your paper mail load down to a very small amount.........................

Very true! We're down to about 6 pieces of mail a month, but I want to keep the residence, absentee ballots, boat registration & documentation, IRS, prescriptions, etc. established.

[Tom Stormcrowe]

my solution is my aunt is serving is it from address for me. she also has power of attorney to handle documents like registration it cetera on my behalf. I trust you implicitly and her ethics beyond reproach. she's that rarest of beasts, a trustworthy and honest lawyer. :-)

[delmarrey]

Just an FYI here. I happened across this site that has some good mail forwarding prospects.

>>> States With No Income Tax <<<

[mifi601]

What I want to know why everyone still seems to be worried about paying federal income tax. If you are cruising for 37 years (CaptForce) would it not seem natural, to not pay income tax, IF and only if you are not more than 6 months in US waters? If it's good enough for Liz Taylor and Richard Burton ...

[Kettlewell]

I'm pretty sure you have to stay outside the USA for 330 days of each year to be able to not file income tax. In any case, many cruisers make so little they don't owe much if any income tax, and others prefer to come and go as they please. Still others like to earn money in the USA, where they get paid a lot more, and therefore they pay taxes on it. But, you are right, some do end up basically moving overseas, only rarely coming home, but then it is hard to find a country where you don't become subject to tax if you stay too long.

Here's what the IRS says about it:

Requirements

To claim the foreign earned income exclusion, the foreign housing exclusion, or the foreign housing deduction, you must meet all three of the following requirements.

Your tax home must be in a foreign country.

You must have foreign earned income.

You must be one of the following.

A U.S. citizen who is a bona fide resident of a foreign country or countries for an uninterrupted period that includes an entire tax year.

A U.S. resident alien who is a citizen or national of a country with which the United States has an income tax treaty in effect and who is a bona fide resident of a foreign country or countries for an uninterrupted period that includes an entire tax year.

A U.S. citizen or a U.S. resident alien who is physically present in a foreign country or countries for at least 330 full days during any period of 12 consecutive months.

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by mifi601

What I want to know why everyone still seems to be worried about paying federal income tax. If you are cruising for 37 years (CaptForce) would it not seem natural, to not pay income tax, IF and only if you are not more than 6 months in US waters? If it's good enough for Liz Taylor and Richard Burton ...

Where did you get this 6 month thing from?

As a US Citizen it does matter where on the planet you are or for how long....if you have taxable income or a taxable event (like cap gains) then you have a potential tax liability (whether you actually have to cut Uncle Sam a check of course depends upon the details of your tax situation).

Surprisingly, there is no penalty for not filing per se, but if you owed taxes and did not file then you could be in deep doo doo.